Central Mass. losing clout on Beacon Hill

For the last seven years, the city and Central Massachusetts have had a direct pipeline to the center of power, influence and money on Beacon Hill: the governor’s office.

That conduit’s name is Timothy P. Murray.

As Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s lieutenant governor, the Worcester Democrat and former mayor of the state’s second-largest city has, by all accounts, delivered projects, funding and political clout to his hometown and surrounding area.

Soon, all that will be gone.

Mr. Murray’s somewhat surprise announcement that he was resigning his post June 2 to become president and chief executive of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce has triggered fears about the potential for another long drought for the region’s political stature and economic prospects.

“It’s a tremendous loss,” said Kevin O’Sullivan, president of Worcester-based Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives and a former Worcester state representative. “When you walk away, the ‘juice’ changes. I think he’ll yield the influence.”

Before Mr. Murray was elected lieutenant governor in 2006, it had been 50 years since a Worcester politician had attained statewide office, though Paul Cellucci of Hudson, a Republican lieutenant governor and governor in the 1990s, gave Central Massachusetts a voice at the Statehouse.

After Mr. Cellucci, Republican Jane Swift of North Adams was also considered friendly to initiatives outside the Boston area.

But Mr. Murray’s unusually close access to Mr. Patrick and his own continued interest in municipal matters in Worcester, where he continues to live, produced notable results in his hometown and region.

Supporters credit him, among other things, with: pushing the Massachusetts Port Authority to buy Worcester Regional Airport and then build a $32 million landing system upgrade to attract JetBlue; delivering state money to spur the CitySquare downtown redevelopment project and tear down an old downtown mall; siting a massive intermodal rail yard in the city; boosting commuter rail service; and constructing a $302 million facility to replace the former Worcester State Hospital.

Mr. Murray wasn’t always successful. He tried, but failed, to get the state transportation department to build a fancier, and more expensive new bridge over Lake Quinsigamond to replace the old bridge linking Worcester with Shrewsbury.

Even area Republicans who profess a distaste for the Patrick-Murray administration’s fiscal policies say they had a receptive ear at times in the lieutenant governor’s office.

State Rep. Matthew A. Beaton, R-Shrewsbury, worked with Mr. Murray on the bridge project and says Mr. Murray has been helpful so far with Mr. Beaton’s attempts to produce information about the work of a commission on energy efficiency.

“As much as I’d like to play the partisan game, my personal working relationship with him has been a positive one,” Mr. Beaton said.

And while there are those who say that some of the projects Mr. Murray has been given credit for were already in the works before he went to Beacon Hill, most political veterans from the area say his impact has been dramatic, in both symbolic and concrete ways.

“Having Tim Murray as lieutenant governor the last seven years was a historic thing,” said Gerard D’Amico, a Worcester lobbyist and former Democratic state senator. “He has been the most influential state official from Worcester.”

Some observers see the city’s legislative delegation at a low ebb, with the departures in recent years of key legislators such as former representatives Vincent A. Pedone and Robert P. Spellane.

Seasoned politicians note tough times can occur when there is not direct access to the Statehouse corner office.

Rep. John J. Binienda, D-Worcester, with 26 years in office as the dean of the city’s legislative delegation, recalled that an official in Republican Gov. William F. Weld’s administration proposed closing Worcester State College (now Worcester State University). Mr. Weld, a New York native, was from Cambridge.

And Mr. Binienda noted that Gov. Mitt Romney, who was raised in Michigan, was a tough negotiator who agreed to build a big new Worcester courthouse — but only if area lawmakers acquiesced to his demands, including merging some courts and closing others.

Some noteworthy Central Massachusetts projects were accomplished during the Romney era in the mid-2000s, however, including Union Station and Route 146.

“During those days, we didn’t have access to the corner office,” Mr. Binienda said. “But with Tim, when I needed something done for Central Massachusetts, that’s who I went to.”

Mr. Murray won’t entirely vanish from the political scene.

As head of the Chamber of Commerce, he is expected to continue to use his Boston contacts, including his close relationship with the governor, to promote the Worcester region’s economic development agenda.

Contact Shaun Sutner at ssutner@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ssutner.